The Machine
The Machine is a computer system built and designed by Harold Finch and Nathan Ingram for the United States government. Currently owned by the U.S. government, it utilizes feeds from domestic organisations such as the NSA, and foreign entities including Interpol to foresee terrorist attacks and modify intelligence reports by including so-called 'relevant' data, allowing the government to forestall terrorist activity. Combined with collected data from various other sources, such as video footage, phone calls (landline, VOIP, mobile), GPS, electronic transactions, e-mails and other social media secretly it is able to accurately predict violent acts without anyone knowing about its existence. About Development After 9/11, Congress created the cabinet-level U.S. Department of Homeland Security via the Partriot Act. DHE and its affiliated agencies have the right to read every email and listen to every phone call, but they needed a computer system that could scan through all the information to identify terrorists before they could act. After trials with projects like Trailblazer, TIA, and Stellar Wind were unsuccessful, the Machine was commissioned. Development was handed over to Nathan Ingram, who seemed to have had connections to the government. When the Machine was finalized, Ingram sold it to the government for $1. It went online on February 24, 2005. History Classification The Machine sorts through all available information and categorizes persons of interest into relevant (terrorism) and irrelevant (everything else) cases. When a relevant threat has been identified, the information will be forwarded to the NSA or the FBI , without leaving any indication where the information originated. Every night at midnight, the Machine erases the list of irrelevant cases, for example violent crimes, domestic violence or other premeditated acts that do not threaten national security. Finch later realizes that the irrelevant list includes people about to be involved in bad situations, which he later comes to believe was just as important as the "relevant" list. Finch therefore utilizes the back door to the Machine (put in place by Nathan Ingram) in order to access the irrelevant list. Access The exact location of the Machine servers remains unknown. After it was handed over to the government, it was shipped from Des Moines, Iowa to Salt Lake City, Utah. Finch stated on several occasions that he has no way of accessing it and that he also doesn’t know where the servers are stored. According to Finch, The Machine has been coded in a way so that it cannot be accessed in any way. It is able to update, maintain, and repair itself. Assessment In Artificial intelligence (AI) it is known as "Machine Learning". Communication The Machine uses the Dewey Decimal System to communicate new Social Security numbers. Whenever it identifies a person of interest, the information is relayed to Finch by phone (call or text message). He uses a public pay phone to receive the call numbers of books that are cataloged by the DDS. Combining their DDS numbers allows him to put together the SSN. Dewey2.jpg|Books with the call signs Family/Alpha, Mike Uncertainty/Romeo, Kilo Reflections/ Juliet, Oscar SSN.jpg|... form the Social Security Number for Leon Tao The Machine contacts Finch when it perceives a threat regarded as "irrelevant" yet imminent. It is yet unclear to what extent the Machine is self-aware or sentient and how far Finch is able to control it. Flashbacks indicate that the Machine once took an active interest in safeguarding Finch, but he has since set limits on such conduct. Finch himself is adamant that the Machine have no form of remote access, as it could be used by a hacker to gain control. Under certain circumstances, it appears to be possible for the system administrator (Finch) or a recognized asset (Reese) to communicate with the Machine by talking into any security or traffic camera. , The Machine flashes a red light to indicate that it is processing the request. Contingency The "Contingency" routine is an additional function added by Nathan Ingram just before the Machine was shut down and packed for transport. Unknown to Finch, Ingram created this function to gain access to those numbers that were sorted out as non-relevant. Shortly after the Machine left IFT, the contingency function sent the first irrelevant number to Ingram. It has yet to be determined when Finch found out about the back door or if he had built one of his own, as stated when he first told Reese about the Machine. Glitches Following orders from a mysterious third party, Kara Stanton uploaded a virus onto the Internet which appears to affect the Machine in a way so that it fails to send new numbers to Finch in time. The true nature of the virus has yet to be uncovered. Finch monitors the progress over time, as he tries to trace it. Eventually, it becomes apparent the Machine's output is becoming erratic, and in time, that numbers are being delayed. The delayed generation of numbers lead to the deaths of Beecher, Szymanski‎‎ and Dr. Nelson, which, along with the increasing flashes of coded blue screen, suggest that the Machine may be failing. Over the course of In Extremis, the machine experiences a number of glitches as blue screens constantly interrupt its perspective on video feeds. As they break down, the monitoring boxes begin to dance across the screen and disappear as the picture degrades. Finally, the Machine displays a a red coded screen stating that signal is corrupted, followed by a series of messages, each originally desolving from western to Greek characters: MAJOR ERRORS ENCOUNTERED: Feed analysis suspended Threat detection suspended Data corruption: 86.914% As the red screen begins to fade away, it displays: Fatal error Operations compromised Heuristics offline Finally, the text, then screen go red as it displays: Threat to system ' '''Threat to system ' '''Threat to system Primary operations shutting down At the end of the episode, the Machine's primary functions have shut down. This may indicate the governmental access to the Machine and the generation of the relevant list have ceased. It is unclear whether the Contingency routine is still running, how much access Finch still has, and whether the Machine is still generating the irrelevant list. People who know about the Machine By the time of its creation officially seven people knew about the Machine. Except for Ingram, nobody else knew of Finch also being involved, therefore, in fact eight people were aware of its existence. *Nathan Ingram *Harold Finch *Alicia Corwin *Denton Weeks *Special Counsel *Daniel Aquino (unknown whether he was one of the original eight, or if he was told about the Machine later.) Others came to know about the Machine later: *John Reese (learned about the Machine when be began working with Finch.) , *Henry Peck (realized the Machine had been built, later confirmed by Finch. ) *Root (learned about the Machine at an indeterminant point in time, and has made it her mission to "set it free".) Colored boxes and symbols People The Machine applies different colored boxes in order to categorize the people it observes. Boxes can change as the Machine re-evaluates its assessment of the individuals it monitors. (white because he doesn't know about the Machine) and Reese (yellow because he knows) turn red after the Machine learns that they were investigating Finch. ]] Watercraft and aircraft The Machine also categorizes and marks watercraft and aircraft. Boats, ships and ferries are assigned a white diamond while airplanes and helicopters receive a green triangle along with flight number and airport codes. Wheeled vehicles (such as cars, trucks and busses) are coded based on status of individual passengers within. Exclusion zones The Machine monitors areas around potential terrorist targets, such as sky lanes, shipping lanes, and major railroads. Exclusion zones are coded in white or red, which may represent a threat appraisal, or the value of the target. Trivia *The extent of Nathan Ingram's contingency protocol inside the Machine is unknown. During Finch's absence the Machine tasked Reese with the job of searching and protecting the numbers that came up, thus implying that Reese or any immediate asset are part of that contingency. *In , the Machine is referred to as "Research" by Samantha Shaw and Michael Cole, as it provides them the SSNs from the relevant list. However, in the first encounter between Shaw and Finch, she is informed by Finch that "Research" is non-existent but full of secrecy, but that ultimately they both work for the same entity. Notes The producers' commentary on the Season 1 DVD confirms that in flashbacks, the Machine reviews old footage in the present, meaning that it assigns the colored squares according to what it knows about the characters in the current timeline. Therefore, the yellow square it assigned Reese in various flashbacks before Finch told him about the Machine may only indicate that the Machine uses a present day indicator, not that Reese knew about the Machine before meeting Finch. External links *Technologies and Analyses in CBS’ Person of Interest *The Machine is real es:La máquina Machine Machine